A Samurai's Pledge

A/N: The next chapter is up!

I've tried to keep everyone as close as possible to their characters in the anime though I'm sure there will be a few OOC moments.

For those of you who left unsigned reviews, see my replies below:

trumm12345 – Thanks for the comment! Fear not, all is not lost for Signum. Yet. Lol. You'll see what I mean when you read this chapter. :P

Love thus story – Thanks for the review. ^^ You should know by now how much I love cliffhangers. Hehe. So really, that shouldn't have been a surprise. :P Fear not, Signum won't die just yet. She's a main character after all. XD

Disclaimer: The characters and the worlds I write in do not belong to me. The stories that I write are intended for entertainment purposes. I do not make any money from them.

*** ~ Chapter 9: Wounded Soul ~ ***

"They are called the Cursed Blades of Eclipse."

Imperial Scholar Scrya Yunno stood at the front of the room, this room one of many meeting rooms inside of the Imperial Palace. A large rectangular cherry wood table sat in the middle of the room, surrounded by chairs of matching design. The Empress sat at the far end of the table, farthest away from the blonde scholar, Rein and Agito sitting on the table itself in front of the brunette. Zafira sat on the ground, off to Hayate's right.

Also amongst this crowd were the White Devil and the Thunder Reaper. Having heard the commotion during their regular rounds in the capital city, the two assassins quickly returned to the Imperial Palace only to find disarray. The White Devil leaned back against the wall nearest the doors, her arms crossed over her chest. The Thunder Reaper sat at the table to Hayate's left.

"Originating from the ancient age of Belka," Yunno continued. "They were just a few out of many blades infused with the dark magic of the demon lord Eclipse."

A frown.

"Said to rival the Weapons of Legend in both power and magic, unlike the Weapons of Legend, they give their wielders near immortality in exchange for consuming their soul."

Agito gritted her teeth, her fists clenching tightly.

"According to the history books, about one thousand of those blades were ever created before the demon lord's destruction. But no two weapons were ever the same. Each blade varied in size and form. Upon the death of their wielder, however, it was said the blades were also destroyed."

"Apparently not," the White Devil huffed. Violet coloured eyes were dead serious. White gloved hands tightened into fists.

"I find it very hard to believe that the one Signum-san faced today was hundreds of years old. Even if she was gifted with this semi immortality, she should have died by now. Ancient Belka was over a thousand years ago."

Yunno frowned again. "The weapons themselves could have been dormant all this time and weren't found up until recently," he said. A pale hand reached up to stroke his chin.

"Are you certain that's what they were?" The Thunder Reaper glanced at her partner before facing the blonde scholar again.

"No Legendary Weapon I've come across puts out quite the same... dark aura..." the Empress answered on Yunno's behalf. "I'm sure you two felt the same thing I did when you rushed back here."

The Thunder Reaper stared at the table, her maroon coloured eyes narrowing. Yes, she had felt it. So did the White Devil. Never in her life had the Thunder Reaper felt such cold heartlessness emanating from a weapon, far-a-less a person. She couldn't but shiver upon their return to the Imperial Palace for the brief seconds that that presence lingered, before it disappeared completely, without a trace.

"Is there anything else we should know about before tracking this person down?"

The White Devil stared at the imperial scholar, fingering the ruby pendant necklace she wore on top of white garb. The Thunder Reaper rose to her feet and walked across the room to join her partner. All the talking was pretty much done now. Especially when the White Devil had set her mind on this already.

"Do what you can to avoid a direct confrontation," the Imperial Scholar said. "Fight from a distance. If she can't get close to hit you, you should be fine."

"We'll do what we can."

Both of the assassins turned their backs on the others to leave.

"Nanoha-chan, Fate-chan, just one more thing."

Footsteps paused, heads turning, the White Devil and the Thunder Reaper looking back at the Empress.

The brunette pursed her lips looking at the table momentarily before raising her gaze again. "I have reason to believe this person is the same person who killed Signum's previous master before me."

"W-what?" Rein's head snapped towards the brunette, her mouth hanging open in shock.

Agito hugged herself, hunching forward with her eyes closed. After everything went to hell yesterday, as luck would have it, the fire sprite stumbled across the letter Signum received from a month ago again, during her aimless wanderings about the samurai's quarters while trying to order her thoughts. The moment she brought it to Hayate's attention, the Empress took one look at it before demanding this meeting take place.

Blood coloured eyes darkened.

Well this certainly made things more complicated.

"Does Shamal-san know?"

The Empress looked away, shaking her head. "And I'd like to keep it that way for a little bit longer. At least until we know more."

"For now," the White Devil said. She turned back to the door again, her expression even darker than before.

"I need her captured alive, Nanoha-chan," the Empress called out after the exiting assassins.

"I can make no promises," the White Devil said, pushing through the meeting room doors and finally taking her leave.

The Thunder Reaper watched her partner go before turning back to the Empress. "I'll see what we can do," she said. Black gloved fingers wrapped around a yellow magatama charm bracelet hanging off of the Thunder Reaper's wrist. "But I'm with Nanoha on this one."

Hayate nodded. "I understand."

"Why did you stop me?"

Shamal startled at the voice.

A day had passed since that nightmare of a meeting which left Signum nearly dead and her cousin AWOL. Had it been anyone else rushing to the almost fatally wounded samurai's side, had Shamal been just a few seconds later, the captain of the samurai would have surely died. Somehow the pinkette managed to hang onto life by a thread, giving Shamal the sparse few seconds she needed to save the swordswoman's life. The blonde healer was exhausted by the end if it, and it would be touch and go for the hours which followed, but now, a day later, the worst of it seemed to be over for the samurai captain. Unfortunately, Shamal couldn't say the same about Levantine.

Signum's trusted blade and weapon lay in pieces on the side table near the pinkette's bed. Yunno assured Shamal this was merely a temporary thing, the scholar saying that the mystical blade would fix itself in time as long as its wielder also healed themselves. But truth be told, none of them at the Imperial Palace under the Empress had ever seen a Legendary Weapon break like this. And that fact alone terrified the Empress' Head Attendant. The only exception to that was during the JS Incident when Fate and Nanoha had also been near death, Raging Heart and Bardiche flickering in and out of existence. But even then the assassins' weapons remained intact. Levantine was in pieces.

"Shamal!"

Shamal flinched at the harsh sounding of her own name. Violet eyes locked onto dark blue ones.

"Why did you stop me?" Signum repeated, in spite of the pain of her injuries and the dryness of her throat.

Even with her having been in the deep throes of rage during her near deadly fight, there would be no way that Signum couldn't recognize the feeling of Klarer Wind's wires. It wouldn't have been the first time the samurai had been ensnared by them. Though in previous cases, those fights hadn't been to the death.

"Shamal!"

The blonder healer jumped again, gripping a clump of her green robe tightly in white knuckled fists. She currently sat at Signum's bedside and had been there ever since yesterday, barely sleeping nor eating while watching over the injured pinkette.

"She is my Itoko, Signum!" Shamal exclaimed, a tiredness and weariness to her voice. "Did you really think I'd stand by and watch as you killed her!?"

"That is exactly what you should have done!" Signum spat, furious blue eyes narrowing at her present company. "Had you been anyone else, I would have slain you in your spot for your interference!"

Shamal felt like she'd been stabbed in the gut. She shook. "S-Signum-"

"Get out."

Another stab, this time to the heart.

"Signum, please-"

"I said get out!"

"Signum!"

"I don't know who you are anymore!"

A hard shove sent Shamal stumbling backwards for balance. When she regained her footing and looked up again, Signum was sitting up, just barely, shoulders hunched forward, rasping breaths escaping her lips. White sheets were crumpled around her waist, fresh bandages wrapped around most of her upper body. Sweat rolled down the samurai's cheek, the pinkette's brow furled tightly, a clear indication she was in pain. Signum clutched at the bandages wrapped around her chest.

Shamal was torn between going to her secret love's side and abiding by her wishes. But, before she knew what she was doing, she took a step forward. "Sig-"

A wet cough. Crimson spots stained white sheets, dribbling from chapped lips.

"Get out and never come back," Signum said in a shaking voice. Blue eyes refused to look up. "I want nothing to do with you."

"But Signum-"

"GET OUT!"

Signum grabbed the nearest thing to her, pulling back her arm to throw it at the blonde. It was Levantine's broken hilt.

A muffled sob reached Signum's ears before soft footsteps padded out of the room, the door thumping shut behind them. Through the door, the samurai could hear weeping, but she squashed down the rising feeling of agony and despair clawing up her chest. This was how things should be. At least, that's what she tried to convince herself of.

Staring at her broken weapon, the pinkette was surprised when droplets of water hit the shattered metal. How had everything suddenly gone so wrong? Signum did her best to ignore them, gritting her teeth even as a sob sounded on her own lips and tears spilled from her eyes. But as much as she tried to hold everything back, even she succumbed to weakness, and Signum cried.

For those of you unfamiliar with the non-English words, I have translated them below.

Itoko = Cousin

A/N: For an explanation of Japanese honorifics (eg. [name]-sama), please check out: wiki/Japanese_honorifics